“For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.” (Psalm 149:4)
God made man good. He made him in His own beautiful image and likeness. Man’s disobedience to God has corrupted God’s image in man and made him ugly. To the degree man is unlike God, He is neither good nor beautiful. He is a piteous caricature of his Creator.
There is a way back to goodness and beauty. Scripture tells us to “receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21) Our souls need saving each day from decisions which will damage and disfigure them. Satan hates to see the image of God restored in us. He exhorts us to a life of pleasing ourselves and doing what’s right in our own eyes. He savors the things that are of men and not of God. Like men, he looks on the outward appearance. And while he wants us to be enamored with our physical image, he is only too glad that the image of God in us goes to pot. The uglier of soul we become, the more he takes pleasure in us.
Obedience to God produces everlasting beauty in our soul. There was no person who ever walked the face of the earth who was more beautiful than Jesus. His meekness was His glory. Every choice He made to do the Father’s will and not His own increased His splendor. Those of the world did not know Him. They saw no beauty in Him to be desired. But when His life was over He passed into heaven, as both Perfect Man and Perfect God. Self-will would have marred Him. But He offered Himself up as the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, that our sins might be purged and our obedience might be like His. He now sits in the heavens – the “brightness of God’s glory,” and “the express image of His person.” Being made perfect He is the author of eternal beauty and salvation unto all who obey Him.
Do you care how you look? To whom? Choose the pathway to a beauty that will never fade away. Choose meekness. The god of this world will despise you; but the Lord of heaven and earth, who has made all things for Himself and His pleasure, will take great pleasure in you.